The Power of Leadership

Author: Zhai Hongsheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: We are living in an era with too many managers and too few leaders! This is because many leaders merely see themselves as managers and forget that they are the pioneers driving the group forward and the mentors guiding collective action. In short, leadership is about being a leader and a mentor. We are in an era that desperately needs true leaders. This is not about our need to understand the concept of leadership, but rather the urgent demands of the times. In slave society, slave owners only needed whips to drive slaves, and killing and death to intimidate them—no leadership was required, not even the need for management skills. In the feudal era, rulers only needed Confucian ethics and rituals to restrain the people, and harsh laws to suppress them—neither leadership nor management skills were necessary. However, today in the 21st century, in any team, if people cannot voluntarily strive toward a common goal and if the "management whip" is used excessively to force compliance, that team will inevitably fall apart and become a disorganized mess. Having engaged in leadership teaching, research, and leadership work for many years, I have gained some insights. Moved by the weak sense of leadership in society and the suppression of people's autonomy, I wrote this book to provide a platform for those who are passionate about leadership to explore and discuss together.